Quick Click: Vignettes from the Jewish News Archives, Feb. 26, 2015

Everyone knows about daylight savings time in Michigan. In November, we set our clocks back one hour, and in March, we set the clock forward one hour.

But did you know that daylight savings time in Israel was extended until April?

That’s right. In 1984, the cabinet in Jerusalem voted to extend daylight savings time on a permanent basis. As an economic measure, the extension of daylight savings time was expected to yield an energy savings of $3.5 million for Israel. The extension was originally an experiment to see if there would be energy savings by extending daylight savings time by an additional four weeks.

However, there were protests and opposition to the idea by the Orthodox Jewish community because of morning prayers beginning an hour earlier for a longer period of time. In 2013, a decision was made by the Israeli government to permanently extend daylight savings by a month.

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives, available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.